World Cup ticket scam made £2400

Jan 6 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

TWO sports enthusiasts each handed over £1200 for rugby world cup final tickets after seeing them advertised on the internet.

But the briefs never turned up and they contacted the police after they realised they had been the victims of a scam.

The perpetrator, 26-year-old Shabbaz Hamayun, was told at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday that his number one priority was paying back the cash he had fraudulently obtained.

The court heard that three tickets for the event had been advertised on gumtree.com

The accused initially wanted £500 a ticket but a price of £400 was agreed with Jonathan Elworthy who sent off the cash.

Depute fiscal Janine Bates said that the accused sent Mr Elworthy a text, with a tracking number for an envelope which had been dispatched.

“He eventually got the envelope but it was found to be empty,” she added. “The address was also written in such a way it looked as if the accused had not intended that it should reach its final destination.

“Mr Elworthy tried to contact the accused on several occasions and the accused inferred the tickets must have been stolen in transit.”

A similar situation happened when a second victim, Mark Holbeche, also applied for three tickets.

In his case, there was no such address although the envelope did reach him. Again, however, there were no tickets.

The two complainers ended up contacting each other and the matter was reported to the police.

Hamayun, of Glasgow, admitted two charges of fraudulently obtaining a total of £2400 by inducing the two men to transfer money to his account at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Perth’s Dunkeld Road between October 16 and 19, 2007.

Solicitor Cheryl Clark said that the accused had given each of the victims a cheque for £150 but he had then been made redundant.

He was due to start work as a scaffolder on July 19, earning £800 a month.

Sheriff Robert McCreadie deferred sentence until February 2 when the accused’s financial situation – and the question of restitution – would be reassessed.